Rule 12.140.Continuing Education Requirements

The qualification rules set how many continuing education hours an approved mediator owes every two calendar years. UTCR 12.140 says what those hours must contain, what counts as an hour, and where the credit gets reported.

For an approved general civil mediator, one hour must relate to confidentiality and one hour to mediator ethics, and six hours can be satisfied by continuing education classes the mediator's licensure already requires, unless that licensure is not reasonably related to the practice of mediation. For an approved domestic relations custody and parenting mediator or domestic relations financial mediator, two hours must relate to confidentiality, two hours to mediator ethics, and twelve hours to custody and parenting issues or financial issues respectively, with twelve hours available from licensure-required classes on the same condition. The confidentiality and ethics hours can be met inside those twelve subject hours when confidentiality or mediator ethics is covered in the context of domestic relations.

Topics are open-ended. The rule offers the curricula in UTCR 12.100, UTCR 12.110, and UTCR 12.120, practical skills-based training in mediation or facilitation, court processes, confidentiality laws and rules, changes in the subject matter areas of law the mediator practices in, mediation ethics, domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse and elder abuse, gender, ethnic, and cultural diversity, psychology and psychopathology, organizational development, communication, crisis intervention, program administration and service delivery, practices and procedures of state and local social service agencies, and safety issues for mediators.

An hour means 60 minutes of instructional time or activity, delivered by an individual or group qualified by practical or academic experience, and the format is flexible: a live lecture or seminar, a group playback of one where the group discusses the material, listening to or viewing audio, video, or internet presentations, receiving supervision as part of a training mentorship, formally debriefing cases with mediator supervisors and colleagues afterward, lecturing or teaching in qualified courses, and reading, authoring, or editing written materials submitted for publication with significant intellectual or practical content tied to mediation practice. Where applicable, topics should be coordinated with, reported to, and approved by the determining authority of each court where the mediator is approved, and reported at least every two calendar years using the electronic Court-Connected Mediator Continuing Education Credit Form on the Oregon Judicial Department's webpage or another reporting form the determining authority authorizes.